Greece seeks review of European court order for damages to Manolada victims

The Greek government has requested a review of a sentence issued by the Council of Europe's Court of Human Rights in March which calls on the state to pay some 600,000 euros in damages for failing to protect dozens of migrant strawberry pickers who were shot at by their foreman in Manolada in the Peloponnese in 2013.

The state sought a review of the decision following the three-month grace period it was given by the court to pay the damages.

In its ruling in March, the court deemed that the Bangladeshi workers had been victims of forced labor and violence and that the Greek state had failed to protect them.

Once the ruling was issued Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis noted that leftist SYRIZA had pointed to the injustices suffered by migrant workers in 2013, when the party had been in opposition, but had been ignored.

The migrants' lawyer, Vassilis Kerasiotis, noted however that the current SYRIZA-led government, with its appeal for a review of the sentence is effectively "covering up human trafficking in Manolada."